The digitisation of agriculture could help Europe address food security and environmental issues at the same time. But realising this vision will require e-skills, proper broadband infrastructure and big data management, experts warn. Yet the European Commission now wants to motivate young people to return to the farm and contribute to a wider rural transformation but with better enhanced skills. This article notes that from 300 million EU citizens living in rural areas, only 25% are covered by fast or ultra-fast broadband, compared to 70% coverage in urban areas. The goal of the EU is to ensure a broadband access at a speed of at least 30MB/s by 2020. Read more

Precision farming could play a leading role in making EU agriculture more sustainable. But green NGOs claim that the concentration of food production in the hands of the agri-food industry will have catastrophic consequences. Read more

While France's farming community has already introduced new technologies but there are still concerned about the lack of information on the right choices and cost of the technologies. Specifically French farmers are already facing a number of challenges before they prepare for an innovation-driven future, making an investment in new technologies hard. Read more

Commission: Technology will make farming more transparent to consumers

If farmers adopt technologies they can enhance transparent farming. The concept of precision farming is optimisation of inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation water with a positive impact on environment. There is concensus that smart agriculture will benefit consumers through improved food quality."The experts stressed that the environmental impact of agriculture becomes measurable and verifiable by the digitisation of agriculture" (p.15) Read more